[Story] Tales of Annihilation -- Latest episode: #29 Blood and Fire IV

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A Secret Mission

As Rhea was about to leave the room, Harris called after her. “Rhea!” he called her name. She looked back, but the man remained silent. She felt a slight pity for the man, after what he had been through during the past six days. They beat him, they tortured him, but he said not a word – she thought it was rather honorable, or perhaps, he was just far too stubborn.

The silence remained, Rhea would have wanted to wait more for him to gather his thoughts, but she had to go; it wasn't wise to keep General Trevor waiting.

On her way back to the control room, she could not get him out of her mind. “What did he want to say?” she wondered. She would have wanted to run back to the dark room, and ask him, but she was already almost there at the control room, climbing the last few stairs.

The control room was one floor above the room where they held Harris as prisoner. A long and empty hallway led to it. It was the place where they discussed their plans and strategies. As she entered the room, she saw Hal Morrisan and General Trevor Balt, the two most powerful men of Gelidus Retreat. Gelidus Retreat was a home to all sorts of telians, no matter which part of the old empire they or their ancestors came from. A frozen planet, well-hidden from the eyes of the machines, – a giant snowball, as many calls – away from the meaningless conflicts of New Telia. Though, it lacks many essential resources, but the planet's inhabitants make up for it by raiding any of the other telian federations, or less advanced civilizations that they occasionally stumble into during their fares.

Trevor stood by the large conference table, next to his chair, above a metal box. She had never seen anything alike, she wondered what lied inside the sturdy chest. “Believe me, you don't want to know,” Hal said, as if he had just read her mind, or perhaps, he noticed that she was gazing the box deeply and curiously.

“Where did you find this?” she asked, though, she knew exactly where. They found it among the ruins of an ancient city, far on another planet, of which long lost inhabitants were unknown, and found nothing about their history, as if they had everything erased before they gone extinct.

“We've found this one on top of something that appeared to be an altar,” said Roden Tyke, the colonel who led the expedition to the planet. “Though, what's inside is far more curious,” he finished.

Trevor gave the box gave a firm thrust, and it slided across the surface of the table as if it was the slipperiest ice on Gelidus – wooden ice; how curious. Rhea stopped the chest before falling off at the edge, and turned its face towards her. There was no keyhole, nor a padlock; not anything that would prevent the chest from being opened – at least from the outside. She looked at Hal uncertainly, full of doubt. “Should I?” she asked. Hal turned to look at the table, and after a short moment of silence, he made a slight nod.

Rhea gently unlocked the latch, and carefully opened the roof of the chest up. She looked inside, and terrifying red eyes gazed back at her. She quickly closed it back right away, and looked up. “What is this?” she asked.

“We have no idea. Luckily, the person who found it reacted the same way as you did.” Trevor said. “Fortunately, we have our new guest, who is likely to volunteer for a test.”

Rhea did not want to believe what she had just heard. “Are you insane, Trevor? Testing unknown devices on one of our kind? Have you completely...” Trevor interrupted Rhea mid sentence, and she realized that she had just questioned the powerful leader of the army.

“He is not one of us, he was sent here to spy on us. A cowardly worm with the only purpose of leaking our most treasured secrets to the enemy. Don't dare to call that abomination one of our kind ever again. Don't dare, don't ever!” he said with a raging tone, his grayish eyes were burning, full of anger.

“Abomination?” Rhea wondered, how could anyone hate people of his own kind so bad. Times were rough for the past forty-seven years surely, though she hadn't known, as she was born on the frozen planet; she was barely past her nineteenth names-day, how could she know anything, but to test an unknown device on one of their prisoners was surely not approved in the old empire, at least, that's what the histories and tales told about. “Is that all you wanted to show me?” she asked.

Trevor shook his head. “No,” he said, and reached for an envelope lying on the table, and almost gently tossed it to slide across the table where Rhea stood. “Take it.” he said.

Rhea opened the envelope. Inside, there was a single piece of paper, with coordinates printed on it, and a short message 'Take it to Draco.'. “What is it?” she asked.

“You'll see when you get there,” Trevor said. “You'll go tomorrow with Draco and his crew. Take the message with you.”

“Understood!” she said. However, in reality, she didn't understand. “What will be our objectives, sir?” she asked.

“As I said, you'll see, once you get there. Draco will inform you. Maybe.” he replied impatiently.

She looked at Hal, then back at Trevor. “Can I leave now?” she asked.

“Yes. Dismissed!” Trevor said, carelessly waving his hand.


Rhea walked across the lengthy hallways, back to her cabin, and midway, she looked outside the window, which overlooked a frozen lake, she saw the furious blizzard, that raged across the fields of ice in the distance. She held the paper in her hand, wondering where the coordinates would lead. She wondered if Draco and his men would know. She wondered if they would tell. She sighed. “What am I doing here?” she murmured.


She entered her cabin – the tiny little space she called her home. She dropped into her bed right away, and fell asleep shortly after.

The morning was cold and bitter, yet, she managed to force herself out of bed. It was near time to report at the space-harbor, where Draco would be waiting for her.

She dressed into her uniform, and packed some of his field suits; checked her gun, and packed some ammo along with the clothes. She finally jumped into her boots, and before leaving, she looked in the mirror, which was cracked in half, and it made it look like she had a twin sister with her. Suddenly she decided to go in a rush. In the great hurry, she'd almost forgotten about the message, which lied on her nightstand.


The harbor was packed with people as always, but Draco's ship was like the sun; it could never be missed. The ugliest spaceship ever built by telians, that looked far too strange among the others, that it was near impossible to not notice.

She went there to the ramp, which led to the entrance door of the ship. A rusty, but sturdy metal door, and it was closed. Nobody was around, so she sat down to one of the nearby wooden crates, which was labeled as 'explosive'. “Sure. Why not?” she thought. She had to wait for nearly an hour.

Draco and his crew finally arrived, they slowly approached her, walking with a rather comfortable pace. His crew – the fat and dumb one, Zach, the skinny one, Fidel, and the engineer, Rex – followed Draco closely, but they made a separate group from him; the captain of the ship walked alone.

She looked towards the neighboring dock while they neared, that had a smaller ship parked there, she saw a man whom she recognized as Harris. “What the?!” she murmured. She watched as he climbed into the ship that looked like a demian construction. He seemed to be having troubles with his movements, as if he was wounded.

“You see it right, kid, they'd let him run.” a voice from behind, which belonged to Draco said. “Do you have the note?” he asked.

Rhea reached into her pocket, then handed the piece of paper to him, and he took it. “Off we go! Come, kiddo!” he said. Rhea hated when some one called her a kid, but she kinda liked Draco, so she forgave him that.

Out of nowhere, a controller device appeared in his hand – she didn't look, it was probably in his pocket. He pointed it towards the door, which immediately started to open with a bit a rumble, then he walked up the ramp.

Rhea rushed after him, catching up with him. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“I don't know kiddo. We go to these coordinates.” he replied. There was something in the tone Rhea didn't like.

“Or perhaps, you just don't want to tell?” she asked.

He stopped and looked at her. “Is it me?” he said. “Perhaps it is you who doesn't tell us something.”

Rhea looked puzzled. “What?!” she said.


(Continued in next post due to character limit)

After hours of preparations, the engine finally started up, and the ship left the safety of the enormous hangar that they called 'Harbor 37'. In just a few moments, they entered the dark emptiness of space. The sight of countless stars fascinated Rhea; she always loved to be in space.

“Hey, captain! There might be some problems with the AGG” Rex said. The Artificial Gravity Generator was a vital part of the spaceship, although, not necessary. It was the thing that kept them on the floor, otherwise, they would just float around in the ship. “Should we go back?” he asked.

“If it breaks, we fasten our seat belts. No turning back.” Draco said. Though, it was the last Rhea wanted; being tied to a chair while they're in space. She hoped it wouldn't break.

The control room looked like everything was made out of garbage they found in the junkyard. The seats were made of wood, covered with torn apart rags. Most of the computers didn't even work. Yet, the spaceship somehow managed to function.


They traveled in space for nearly a month. During the time, Rhea got to know the crew a bit more.

To her greatest surprise, Rex, the engineer, had lived almost a century, even though, he looks like someone who is only sixty. He lived to see two emperors rise and fall, and saw as the empire was taken over by democracy after the last emperor's death, then after a short, being turned into dictatorship. He lived to see the massacre that was the Plutonium Rebellion, a rebellion created by the infamous Martin Lynx. The man who amassed a large enough army that would've taken over the dictatoric leadership at the time if it wasn't for his early death, caused by a piece of bread getting stuck on his throat. Turned out, the glorious hero that saved the empire was a tiny piece of bread. After his death, the rebels chose a new leader, who had led a large part of his forces into an obvious trap, which ultimately led to the rebellion's failure.

Why did the rebellion start? Nobody really knows, but most say, that it started because of the lack of plutonium in the southern islands, known as Berrita. Most of telian technology relied heavily on the use of such rare resource, but Berrita was the only part of the empire which lacked it completely. The berritans demanded plutonium, but the government refused to give, thus the rebellion began.

Rex Palathagon, the ninety-six years old engineer served in the forty-nineth battalion during the revolt, under the command of General Hades, a merciless butcher who'd sent his troops to slaughter entire berritan cities where no armed forces were present. “The war we face this day is much different than the one I had fought back in those days. Back then, when they gave you order to slaughter the innocent, you had no choice, else, they'd torture your entire family, and even your ancestors in their graves. Hades commanded all of us to kill everyone in most horrendous ways. He armed us with poisonous bullets that didn't kill the victim right away, instead it would paralyze then, and give them several hours of suffering as the poison slowly devoured their bodies. The only way you could have mercy back then is to aim to the head, otherwise, if Hades saw that you finish them up as mercy, he would see for you to get punished.” Rex said.

“You should have chosen the punishment,” Zach interrupted rudely, smashing his fist against the dashboard in front of him. “Yet, instead of dying proud, you'd chosen to become the coward... a slaughterer of many innocent. How are you any better than Hades?”

Rhea just sat there silently. She had no intention to become involved in this conflict. She looked at Draco in the captain's seat, but he did not care to interrupt.

Zach, the fat crewman is a berritan descendant. His grandfathers both died during the rebellion. They were captured by Hades' troops and were tortured for weeks in one of his prison camps.

Rex did not respond to Zach's provokation. Grievous silence filled the control room for the next few hours.


[…]


At first, it was just a tiny bright dot in the distance, but as they neared it, it grew larger. Soon enough, Rhea realized that it was a planet. It shone blue as a sapphire, and clouds whirled above the masses of water and continents that made the surface.

They slowly began descending, so gently, that Rhea could not even feel anything about it. “It didn't shake,” she said.

“The humans left lots of toys behind for us,” Rex said. “We have many of their toys built into the ship.”


They landed in an area that appeared to be a park that was long abandoned. “What sort of place is this?” she asked as she followed the crew across an empty street. They remained silent for a while, giving no answer. She wondered why nobody ever tells her anything.

They entered a narrow street, with tall buildings towering above them from both sides. One of the buildings had been turned into a pile of bricks, as a giant tree grew out of it, and forced the structure to collapse. The road below them was made of concrete, however, grass teared it apart during the years and grew out of the cracks – a glorious victory of nature. After a while, they reached a corner and the others turned left. Rhea turned left too, and as she looked up she saw a large building, half in ruins. It was built in the old telian style. She recognized the style from the old pictures she saw as a kid. “Is this?” she murmured.

“It is.” Rex said.

“Tallanos, the once proud capital city of the Telian Empire,” Fidel added.

“What are we looking for here?” she asked.

“We came for a box,” Zach said, then started to chuckle. “A very special box.”

Rhea looked at Draco puzzled.

“Don't worry, kid... we're just as clueless as you are.” Draco said.

Fidel grabbed her from behind, and forced her arms, and held them together. Zach took her gun. Draco looked deep in her eyes. “And now... you tell us why are you here?”

“I don't understand?!” Rhea said with a slight hint of fear in her eyes. “They sent me, I don't know why.”

“There must be a reason. They don't just send kids randomly to Old Telia. You know something, and we must know it too.” Draco said. He reached for a sharp looking knife attached to his belt. “If you don't tell, you are no help for us.”

“Leave the child, Draco, she is not our enemy” Rex said.

“Mind your own business, old fool!” Zach told him rudely with an arrogant tone.

“Stay out this, Rex!” Fidel said while struggling to hold Rhea still.

“What did Trevor tell you?” Draco asked with a commanding voice.

“He didn't... he didn't say anything. He just gave me the note, and told me to look for you.” she said.

“Boss, we should beat her up!” Fidel suggested.

“Shut up!” Draco told him, then looked back at her. “When Trevor gave you this note, did you see anything strange?”

“Yes,” she replied. “I saw... I saw a small chest... They were going to test it on...”

“On who?” Zach interrupted impatiently.

“On a captured spy,” she finished the sentence.

“What was inside the chest?” Draco asked with a calm tone this time. Rhea remained silent. He reached for her chin with his hand, and gently pushed her face up. “Kid, do you know what was that thing inside the chest?”

He then looked at Rex, who started speaking. “It is a machine that takes control over us if it affects us.” Rex said. “It crawls up to you, and forces itself inside your body.

As Rhea heard his words, she was filled with horror. She wanted to cry, like a baby, but she managed to gather enough strength to not do so. “So, what are we gonna do now?” she asked.

“We get the box,” Draco replied, and went ahead. Fidel released her.

The massive building had the resemblance of a fortress that was designed to withstand massive attacks, and by the sights of it, Rhea thought that no real battle was ever fought there. The building stood tall without a scratch, only the plaster had fallen off here-and-there, but for the most part, it had its original glory. “Get me a flashlight!” Draco commanded.

Inside the building it was dark, as all the windows were covered by thick iron plates. Only Draco's flashlight provided a bit of light. Inside it was not as glorious as in the outside, piles of documents and shattered furniture lied all over the floor in the hallway.

Draco walked up to a metal box on the wall, and opened it. Inside the box, there was a rusty lever; Draco pulled it, and the lights of the building turned on at once.

“How?” Rhea asked.

“The building runs on solar power.” Rex answered.


(Continued in next post due to character limit)

After they climbed the stairs to the second floor, they entered an office that may have belonged to a high ranked person by the looks of it; the furniture in the room was beautiful, and the decoration all around the walls were rather elaborate, including the large painting of a man in a uniform. The surface of the desk was empty for the most part, except for a few ornaments and a few papers lying around.

“Shouldn't someone stay out and guard?” Zach asked.

“There's no one aside of us on the planet, dumb child,” Rex replied.

“Don't call me that!” Zach demanded.

“Why not? Does it hurt your feelings?” Rex said. “You should spend more time thinking, than talking.”

“Stop it, you two! Please...” Fidel said casually, while digging through some documents on the shelf.

“Who are you to tell me what to do?” Zach said. “You are just a worthless piece of [***] that rots on board of a rusty old spaceship.

“Just like yourself,” Rex said in a calm and sarcastic tone.

“But at least I have my own reasons for being here, unlike you idiots, who claim that this lifestyle is for you!” Zach said.

“And what reasons would that be?” Fidel asked.

“Unlike you, I wasn't born to be a rich puppy like you two. I was stuck in the depths of the poor quarter of Gelidus, yet you see me ever complain?”

“You are complaining right now, you dumb fish... what's the point of this quarrel again?” Rex said.

“You call me that again?” he said angrily, his hands clenched into a fist.

“Oh, you're deaf too?” Rex asked, it was obvious to Rhea that he provoked him at that point.

“Stop this nonsense, right now!” Draco commanded. Rhea was surprised that he waited this long to put an end to it.

“And what if I don't? What are you gonna do about it?” Zach asked.

Draco reached for his gun, and pointed it at the fat crewman. “What will I do?” he asked with a wide smile on his face. “It will be my greatest pleasure to pull the trigger. Go on, we're listening.”

Zach remained silent.

“If any of you starts it again, he's dead,” he said.

The others remained silent. Rhea turned to a nearby shelf, and searched through the folders, when she stumbled into one with a 'Top Secret' label on the front. She opened it, but there was only a small note inside, with 'took it, sorry' written on it.

“Draco!” she said. He looked at her, and she showed him the note, which he took and read. He looked puzzled.

“Keep searching. Check the other rooms!” he commanded. “Spread out... every one checks a different room!” he put in.


The office room where Rhea found herself was dark and scary, but she found a switch which turned the lights on. It was a long room, full of tables, facing towards one larger table at the other end of the room. “The boss' table,” she murmured. The small child in her suddenly woke up; she ran to the end of the room, and sat down in the mighty spinning leather chair, and started spinning like a little child would. She looked up, and saw that the ceiling was so far away. “Huge room in a huge building,” she thought. In the center of the room was hanging the elaborate chandelier, a token of governmental arrogance. It looked so heavy, that if it fell, it would penetrate the floor, and fall to the floor below. It shone gloriously, filling the otherwise dark room with lights of a sun.

After a while, she felt dizzy from all the spinning. She gazed around the top of the desk, and her eyes stumbled into a gilded name table;

“Wyndon Greywoot, great general of the second army”

“Such a shiny title,” she thought, then she casually threw it away.

She looked down, and saw that there were six drawers and a cabinet. She started by pulling the drawers one by one, digging into the things that were in them, but she found nothing of any value, just piles of old documents, full of irrelevant information.

Finally, she tried to open the cabinet, but it was locked. “Curses,” she murmured. She was curious about what was inside, so she looked around to find the keys, then she saw a skeleton, sitting by the wall. The dead man wore a shiny uniform, befit to a highly ranked person. “Oh, the shiny titled guy!” she said to no one in particular. She walked up to the corpse, and searched his uniform – she checked every single pocket of his, inside-and-out. “So many pockets,” she thought. Eventually, she found a wallet in one of the hidden pockets. Inside it, she found some money. Unfortunately, they had no value anymore, as each of the telian federations replaced the old currency, each with their own. She looked deeper into the pocket, and found the key; two keys actually.

She ran back to the cabinet, and tried one of the keys, but it did not fit the rusty lock. She tried the other, and that did the trick. The cabinet door opened, making a loud squeaky noise that echoed in the huge and empty office room, revealing an ornate chest, made of steel, gilded beautifully. It looked similar to the one Trevor and Hal had back in the command room. Except, that this one had a lock, unlike the other.

She shivered. The other key seemed to fit the lock on the front side of it. She slowly turned the key, and after she heard the clicking noise, she carefully opened the lid. It was empty.


The sound of gunshots shattered the silence, followed by a scream of horror, followed by more gunshots.

Rhea threw the box away, and ran to see what was going on. She ran through the hallway, towards the source of the noises.

After she reached a corner, she arrived to the scene of a bloodbath in a wide hall. The bodies of Fidel, Rex and Zach lied on the floor, bleeding away, motionless, their guns lying next to them. The scene shocked her; she could not understand what was going on. She ran up to the corpse of Fidel, and picked his gun up.

She heard footsteps coming from the hallways, they came closer and closer. A moment later, a voice from behind her yelled “Traitor!” followed by the sound of a gunshot, and stinging pain in her left shoulder. Suddenly, she found herself on the cold marble floor in her own blood, screaming of pain, then another gunshot struck her waist; she could barely withstand the pain of it.

She realized it was Draco thinking it was her who killed the others. “No! Stop!” she screamed, as she tried to climb to cover behind a nearby wall. The next shot wounded her right leg. She realized she can't make it to the wall. She forced her body to turn back, facing Draco.

She looked into his eyes; they were full of anger. “It wasn't me,” she said in pain, while breathing rapidly. Each breath of air made her feel like she was stabbed by a knife each time.

“Then who?” Draco asked impatiently. “We're alone in this cursed place.”

“The box,” she said. “I found it... it was empty.”

Draco didn't shoot again, he no longer aimed at her. He looked confused.

Rhea looked at the bodies, and saw that Fidel had a giant wound on his chest. She gazed at it, wondering what made it.

Draco slowly walked closer to her, probably to tend to her wounds. Then suddenly, he screamed out in pain, and dropped his gun. As he struggled, he turned around, and Rhea saw a metal spider, digging itself into Draco's flesh. Rhea aimed at the spider, hit it twice, but the bullets bounced off. She shot again, but she missed; the bullet hit Draco's spine, and he collapsed to the floor, and the spider rolled off his body. It seemed puzzled for a moment, but then it became aware of her presence, and started climbing towards her. She desperately tried to shoot it, but every shot bounced off it. The spider leaped at her from a distance, and it's metallic teeth bit into her chest, and she screamed of the pain.

She grabbed it with her hands, but it held too strong, she could not get it off, her struggle only caused more pain. No matter how hard she tried, the machine forced itself inside her, then everything turned dark...

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awesome. are we going to get any more about the battles between the commanders and the tealeans?

*aliens*

The horror all over again....

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Of course.

Wow, great job! That sure was long but very interesting. You've added a lot of depth to this new race of aliens.

Announcement time!

The next three episodes are in the works, and are likely to be done and released in the following weeks, unless something real life related jumps in to mess up my timeline...

Without revealing too much... The next three episodes will be closely tied together!
The final titles of them are:
#9 Defense of the Sanctuary
#10 Temporary Alliance
#11 The Great Migration

Stay tuned, folks!
Remember; as always, I'm open for all sorts of feedbacks and critique!

PS.: Don't forget to turn the lights on before entering a dark room. Human eyes were not designed to function without an external source of light, be it natural or artificial, and therefore, in dark you might experience that you can't see.

this is awesome, waiting for more!

I enjoy this work very much ^^ keep it up

will we be hearing more about Aurora anytime soon?

cant wait.

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Defense of the Sanctuary

Aurora felt as the soft green grass touched her bare feet, and she enjoyed as the warm breeze stroked her curly long brown hair. Derrick touched her shoulder, and she looked into his blue eyes with the color of sapphire, and she saw as he smiled at her.

His face was covered mostly with fur, as befits a male giant, his lips were pale pink, and his black eyebrows thick, giving him a certain brutish appearance. Aurora's face on the other hand, was without fur, her skin was much softer than his, and her eyes were green. He touched her freckled cheek with his hand, then the other cheek with his other hand. He gently pulled her face closer to his, and eventually, their lips touched.

Then it was over, with a bright flash; she no longer felt the air, and no longer smelled the flowers. She no longer saw Derrick's furry face, instead, she saw a machine that was Derrick in his true shape. Her mechanical face touched his in a rather odd way. “It's over,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “Shall we go back again?”

Aurora thought, that Derrick already knew the answer was going to be yes. Obviously, since it was what they'd done most of the time since they were staying on the sanctuary planet. The temple was a half an hour of walk away, though, they could've just called a transport, and be lifted there in half a minute, but they did not want to. They wanted to enjoy the scenery, which even as a machine, filled them with delight. The trees and the wide fields of flowers, the occasionally appearing wildlife, the animals that curiously gazed at them as they passed by, and the endless songs of birds. As they walked towards the temple, they held each-other's hands, they did not know why, they just decided to do so, because the databases of history told about this ancient human custom, where the lovers hold the hands of each-other.

The statue stood tall in the center of a square in front of the temple, where they'd decided to move it, so every member of their alliance has easy access to it. Since its discovery, the statue had attracted nearly all members of their alliance. Everyone had become addicted to its use. Every single commander, who touched its chest, keeps going back to it after the effect expires, and touch it again.

Nobody knows how it works, and they can't reproduce the technology. Many of them were trying to figure out its secrets, but none had succeeded so far. Many think, the secrets lie within the ancient ruins of the City of Giants, but the countless excavations resulted with no useful information, and they already discovered most of the giants' history.

Odin stood in front of the giant stone angel, which loomed above him. Aurora and Derrick approached him.

“Isn't this the most fascinating creation ever to be created by a bionic civilization?” Odin said. “Look at that perfection! Not even us could create anything near as perfect as this.”

“It is indeed perfect, Odin. But not perfect enough.” Derrick said. “If it was, the effect would be permanent.”

“Oh, yes,” Odin said. “One slight error, that the effect is not permanent. But really is it an error? Perhaps, the statue knows, we are not ready? Perhaps, it knows, we still have enemies to defeat?”

“Do you think it will grant us permanent life, once we defeat our enemies?” Aurora said. “That would most likely prove its perfection.”

“My dear Aurora... the point of life that it is not permanent.” Odin said.

“You know what I meant, Odin.” Aurora.

“Oh, yes... It could be perhaps, it just waits for the right moment; the time when all our enemies are gone, and we can finally live and die in peace.” Odin said.

“But what if it's truly not perfect?” Derrick said. “We must figure out the technology behind this device. Until then, we can never be free. Defeating our enemies could take thousands of years, or even worse, we might fail! Many among us don't want to wait thousands of years.”

“Do not lose hope! … As the humans' teachings said.” Odin advised.

“Humans had hope. Look where they are now! Their entire civilization disappeared, and nobody knows how.” Derrick said.

“We can't tell if they are truly gone, my friend.” Odin said. “The fact we haven't met them yet, doesn't make it a fact that they are also extinct.”

Aurora walked closer to the statue, and gazed at its face. “I'm wondering...”

“What are you wondering about, my love?” Derrick asked.

'Love' … Aurora knew what it meant, but it still felt strange to her. It was something she could not recognize with her sensors, but on the other hand, when she is in her other shape, she feels something that might be it.

“Who could have created such thing? And why?” she said.

“Perhaps, it was the Progenitors? During the war, perhaps they may have wanted to create something that would weaken their enemies.” Odin said.

“But, who were the Progenitors? Were they humans?” Aurora said.

“We don't know. All is known, that Progenitors and humans disappeared nearly the same time. They might be the same thing, or perhaps they were close allies. Unfortunately, nothing is known for us about them.” Odin said.

“Does it really matter?” Derrick asked.

“It does not.” Odin concluded. “At the moment, we have far more pressing issues than the origin of the statue.” he added.

And he was right. With The Synchronous approaching, anything regarding the statue was the least of their concern, except its safety. Moving the statue was not an option, as the statue shared some sort of bond with the planet, and they feared it would break the effect if it was moved somewhere else.

The only choice that remained was to defend the sanctuary with everything they had. Nearly thirty commanders gathered to defend their sacred relic, and all of them were ready to give up their existence to protect it. They came from all over the galaxy, and each brought their forces, and great supplies of metal with them.

The beautiful fields of flowers, the ancient forests, and pure streams and rivers of fresh water were all taken over and polluted by mighty and mightier mechanisms of destruction, ready to pour death to anything in range, living or mechanical alike.

Only a handful of fields and forests remained untouched, where the commanders had spent their time under the effect of the statue, while their minions, made of metal, did all the work for them. Most of the planet was turned into a fortress, where powerful killing machines marched. Aurora watched through the eyes of an air scout as their fabricators bulldozed down vast amounts of trees, then poured metal in their place to build huge factories. She watched as the local wildlife, the innocent animals ran desperately to save their lives, only to run into even more machines that wrecked their homes. She wondered if such sacrifice was really worth it.


Commander Tybalt's informations about an incoming army were correct. The orbital radar detected tens of thousands of objects approaching the planet with great speed. They were about to reach the perimeter of the solar system. They only had about a day left before they reached them.

They were given nearly a month to prepare for the attack; during the time they amassed a powerful army of ground defenses, thousands of orbital fighters, and most importantly, hundreds of anti-orbital turrets were scattered across the surface of the planet. Nuclear missiles were also ready to be launched. Odin expects a great and glorious victory, but everyone knows, that even if they win, more will come, and they also knew they can't go away from there, as the statue only worked on that planet.

As a final step of preparation, dozens of fabricators gathered around the great statue, and activated their nono-lathe guns, all at once; pouring metal towards the statue, forming a giant fortified case around the statue. The container was expected to withstand the impact of a moon, but they had to spend a great amount of metal on it. They also hoped there would be no moons involved in this battle.

They left the container open for some time. It was the last chance for every commander to enjoy the effect before the siege begun.


[…]

(Continued in next post due to character limit)

The first wave was approaching. A wave of orbital bombers attempted to navigate close to the planet's orbit, but the orbital defenses and the swarm of fighters fended them off, and as their wreckage rained down to the surface, the fabricators gathered around their burning remains for their feasts of metal.

Learning from their prior mistake, the next wave of bombers were escorted by several squads of orbital fighters. The defense forces focused most of their firepower to decapitate the bombers, as those were the greatest threat against the planet. Doing so resulted in great losses for the nameless alliance; nearly a hundred fighters were lost, and even with such sacrifice, many bombs reached the surface, but fortunately, only sites of lesser importance had fallen victim to the bombing. After the bombers were finished off, the fighters were called back, and the enemy fighters, that remained in orbit, were picked off one by one by the gigantic cannons scattered across the planet.

The third wave of the enemy spacecraft consisted of the more sturdier machines. Hundreds of heavily armored transports, and seventeen massive juggernauts, accompanied by tens of thousands of lesser spacecraft of various size and shape, all ready to pour death to anything that opposes them.


On the surface, Aurora and Jesper were almost done with stabilizing the flow of energy that powered the experimental cannon, which was powered by several gigantic thermo-nuclear power plants, well-hidden beneath the depths of the seas.

The monstrous artillery slowly siphoned the unimaginable amounts of pure energy into the barrel, slowly charging itself to fire. Aurora feared it might fail, as the technology it was based on was never tested before; it could either not fire at all, or create a gigantic hole in the planet, or worse, blow up the whole planet. However, the alliance concluded it was worth the risk, because as the calculations had shown, the chance of failure was tiny; a mere fraction of a percentage. To be cautious, however, Aurora and Jesper felt the proximity of the energy-cannon, just to be sure.

Twenty minutes were needed for the super weapon to fully charge. Aurora installed an observer station, so she would have visual data of the experiment area. She saw as the tremendous barrel emitted a blinding bright flash of blue light, that rushed into the skies right away with such speed that the sensors could barely catch up with it.

She switched to the visuals of an orbital telescope that was used to determine what kind of units were inbound. The first juggernaut that was hit by the projectile perished right away, along with near a thousand small fighters and orbital fabricators, leaving nothing behind, but dust. A second juggernaut was almost in-line of the projectile behind the first, the beam hit the side of it, and the massive armor melted away, destabilizing the integrity of the spaceship, and in a few moments, it shattered into two halves. The projectile dispersed shortly after in the far. The cannon immediately started to reload.


In the meantime, Odin commanded to launch six nuclear warheads against the incoming transports that approached in close formations, but as the nukes neared their targets, they maneuvered away of each-other, and once the missiles exploded, they only destroyed a friction of the numbers they were intended to annihilate. “What a waste,” Commander Hepitus concluded, using the alliance's communication channel.

“A slight miscalculation,” Odin said.

The orbital fighters attempted to intercept the incoming transports, but they were too great in numbers, and they were too heavily armored, and even the anti-orbital laser cannons needed three to four shots to take down each. Though, they managed to damage them enough, so they can't use their air brakes, and the resulting crash lands caused them many losses, but far from enough. Many of their landing forces survived, and began establishing their forwards bases, and claim a foothold on the planet.

The most extreme success of the enemy was landing an actual battle cruiser in the middle of the sea. That is something that they did not prepare for, as they were far too concerned with the ground forces.

“We need to take down that ship, right now!” Commander Iywin said in the communication channel.

“Oh, we have some nukes,” Hepitus said sarcastically. “I mean, we had some nukes.”

“We must redirect some of our resources to deal with the situation,” Jesper said. “I will lead the attack.”

“I'm sending over some metal with an air convoy to Point 221-B by the sea,” Odin said. “There we have a functional naval port, but you will need to upgrade it slightly.”


Meanwhile, Aurora connected to an air scout that happened to pass by the said battle cruiser, and she concluded it was too powerful for Jesper to handle alone in such short time-frame. It will likely deal heavy damage before being dealt with, she calculated. Unfortunately, she had a more pressing task to deal with.

In fact, every commander had their own pressing task; Commander Garyn and Rhedoric navigated the orbital fighters, while Odin and six other commanders looked after their energy problems caused by enemy attacks. Derrick and Iywin controlled the anti-orbital cannons, and Hepitus and the others planned the defense against the ground invaders. Aurora herself was busy looking after the experimental energy-cannon. Every member of the alliance had their own part of the battle.


Aurora's little toy was ready for a second shot. She watched it as the barrel emitted the bright flash of light once again, and sent it to space, then she watched as another thousand of orbital machinery, along with another mighty juggernaut dispersed in space.

The juggernauts were still too far from the planet to bombard from space, and the cannon's location was fiercely defended from the orbital bombers by everything the alliance had in their disposal.

The next wave of transports brought in aircraft. They had an easier time landing, as they did not have to land, they just flew out of their containments mid-air, and immediately spread out to wreak some havoc among their lines.

Aurora commanded her fabricators to set up the AA-turrets before the enemy planes reached the area, and mobilized every battle-ready fighter they had in the hangars.


“You must look at this,” a voice in the communication channel announced, and then transferred the visuals of a gigantic portal being built in space, outside the range of everything, even the experimental cannon. A perfectly round construction, it consisted of two giant rings.

“Why would they need such a large portal?” Derrick asked.

“To flash their brilliant and superior ego. After all, they are The Synchronous; everything they do is better.” Hepitus said.


The outer ring of the portal started to slowly spin, and moments later, the inner ring started to spin in the opposite direction. They continued to spin for several minutes, becoming faster and faster by each passing minute, and eventually, a wave of energy formed inside the frame. The sensors recognized, that the link was stable, and the enemy was able to send units across the portal...


[…]


The battle raged on around the planet for six hours, and in the meantime, no activity was detected around the portal.

Aurora managed to take down another nine juggernauts before they could bombard the surface, and take out the cannon. The resulting explosion generated a giant EMP wave that shaped a cone and swept across everything above the area and disabled every spacecraft, including three of the remaining four juggernauts. The smaller spacecrafts were able to quickly reboot, but the juggernauts were not prepared for such situation, as there was no precedent of such powerful EMP attack that was able to disable them in the past.

Jesper had no success against the battle cruiser that roamed the seas and bombarded the shores, but after the cannon was down, Aurora was able to focus elsewhere, and armed a fleet of her fighters with torpedoes, and sent them against the cruiser.

Most of the ground forces that managed to land were beaten off, and the enemy had no more transporters left.

The only major threat at the time was the last juggernaut, but after they focused the firepower of every anti-orbital cannon against it, it was overwhelmed, and it turned into a fiery rain of wreckage that fell to the surface.

It looked like a glorious victory for the nameless alliance.


But then, the sensors spotted a large object coming out the massive portal; a spaceship, twice the size of the juggernauts, followed by twenty more juggernauts.


A message from aboard the flagship arrived:

“Resistance is futile. Every weakling will be annihilated. I am Commander Cerberus of the Synchronous, and I will see to it, that every unclean machine, affected by the curse of the bionics will cease to exist.”


Reinforcements were expected to arrive, but what followed was far beyond any expectations of the defenders.

At first, it was only the tip of the prow, and a few large cannons visible, then it slowly revealed as it crawled out of the portal that the Synchronous fabricators assembled a few hours back. It was still only halfway out when the message arrived:

“I am Grand Commander Nero of Legonis Machina, and Captain of the Legendary Valhalla. You will be annihilated!”

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​

wait, Nero used the same portal as Cerberus? am I missing something?

Yes, he used the same portal.

*hint* probably that's why it was so oversized, because Nero has this fatty spaceship.


EDIT: Edited the part where he enters to make it more clear.

Very nice! I can't wait for the next one!

That was fast, keep it up, and thanks very much for the good stories!

Thank you for all the positivity regarding my series!

I had a ton of fun writing these stories, and I will continue the series for as long as I can. I think there are a lot of possibilities in this, considering that the universe is a quite large place with millions and billions of different planets and solar systems, where various events and battles and stuff can take place.

Good news everyone! I included a list of the various other author's works in the first post in this thread. I am going to update it as new authors show up, with the links leading to their threads! The ones included so far are rather solid works, and you are definitely going to like them if you liked this one.

Another thing; a few weeks back I went back to the first episodes and replaced the [temporary faction names] with the finalized names, but I might have missed a few. If you spot one, please do tell!


I also have a few questions, aiming to improve the series.

1. Which was your favorite episode so far of the first nine, and why?
2. Which was your least favorite episode so far of the first nine, and why?
3. Who is your favorite character of the ones introduced in the first nine episodes? Why?
4. Who is your least favorite character of the ones introduced in the first nine episodes? Why?
5. What do you think of the alien race, the telians, introduced in the fourth episode? Did you like them? Do you find them any interesting, or do they lack something important? Do you think they deserve a place in the series?
6. Should there be more alien (bionic) races introduced in the future?
7. How did you find the navigation links provided in the first post and my signature? Is there any way they could improve, or should there be more than what is currently there?
8. What do you think of the series in general?

PS.:
<- Oh! 200 likes! I like likes!

I couldn't really answer questions 1-4 without rereading the posts so far but I do have a few ideas/suggestions/answers to the other questions that you may find useful.

• Could you add a short list of the main characters and races to the first post with a one or two sentence description for each one? Sometimes I forget characters after they haven't been used for a couple of episodes due to the wait between each one so a list like that would be great for jogging my memory. It would also make it easier for new readers to jump right in without having to spend a ton of time catching up.
• You may want to replace the episode list in your sig with a link to the first post to see the complete list of episodes as well as the character list I suggested above. Below that you could have a link to the most recent episode and a "coming soon" note like you have now.
• I really like the telians and the backstory you built for them. It adds depth to the universe and provides a good contrast to the commanders. I'd focus on fleshing out the other races/factions that you've already revealed (humans, progenitors, giants) though before adding another alien race. Quality is better than quantity so I'd suggest keeping it to just a few races that are well developed.
• I'm really interested in hearing more of the story of the humans and the giants. Oh, and the progenitors too.
• It would be cool to have all three of the fan stories in the same universe so every once in awhile characters from one would see/interact with characters from another. But that's just a random idea.
• I'm going to have to report you to the mods as a "like" farmer.

Just keep up the great work! I've been enjoying the story so far and I don't think that's going to change.

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​

Temporary Alliance

Commander Nero ordered his fighters to bombard the surface of the outcast hideout, while the Synchronous commander continued the siege with his ground forces. The Valhalla was nearly in range to finish off the rebellious forces once and for all – only a few hours remained before the legendary spaceship could fire its main weapons.


His secret plan was almost accomplished. It had been quite obvious for months, that the secret alliance of rebellious forces had a major fortification located on the planet, as they were able to track the movements of some of the rebels, as well as based on the reports of their spies within the rebels' ranks, their commanders gather on the planet to visit a certain artifact, but the reason described by the spies made no sense to him.

Nero sent the gathered information to The Synchronous, as he was certain they would not be able to resist such an opportunity, and he offered an alliance to get rid of the threat together. He was certain they would accept it, and they did; everything so far went through as he had planned.

His plan was to attack the rebel planet with the combined forces of the Valhalla and the Synchronous forces, and when the time was nigh, he would turn the Valhalla against the Synchronous commander to weaken the enemies of Legonis Machina. Though, he suspected that they expect a trap, hence they had only sent a single commander with only a small amount of forces. Also, Cerberus was a less powerful commander of The Synchronous, but even so, it would still be a worthy revenge for the trap they set for him months back – the Valhalla still not fully recovered from that ambush.


The thousands of cannons on the sides were all prepared; piles neutronium shells were loaded in, and were eagerly waiting to race to their future targets. Though, the main cannons in the front and the rear were still unusable from the damages they suffered in the last major clash the Valhalla had; a well prepared trap it was, that The Synchronous had spent months to prepare. They failed, and Nero had an immense thirst for revenge; first Cerberus, then the rest of them.


The launch pads were all prepared to send a rain of drop pods towards the planet. Three decks below Nero's control room, a vast hangar was filled with combat-ready bots, fully armored with neutronium plates, armed with G100-type laser guns; the latest of the series.

Nero watched his army from a balcony above the hangar floor, his bodyguards stood beside him; wielding a long spear with neutronium blades at their ends, and they wore long capes, similar to his, made of a special fireproof fabric. He was certain that his plan would be successful. The chance of failure was zero percentage.

Sending ground forces to the planet was a vital part of his plan, because once he attacks the Synchronous forces, Cerberus would be likely to flee to the surface to the freshly conquered fortification. Although, Cerberus would lose in either case, but Nero lacked the patience to spend weeks or months bombarding the surface.

The first wave of drop pods was launched, and the orbital fighters of the rebels immediately mobilized to intercept them.

“The fools,” Nero thought. The drop pads were all empty – Nero knew they would send the fighters to take them down. Hundreds of cannons activated on the front side, all aimed towards the fighters that approached the launch pads. “Rain death, my minions!” he thought.

The neutronium shells that were loaded into the cannons shattered into millions of shrapnels that raced towards the lightly armored orbital interceptors, and in a few moments, as they clashed, the fighters themselves also turned into pieces, and their pieces joined the rampage of shrapnels towards the planet, and ultimately burned in the atmosphere along with them.

The orbital layer was clear. Nero released his full invasion force to support Cerberus' forces – for now.


It took the Valhalla a few minutes to stabilize itself in the orbit, but once it was safe, Nero navigated the ship to make the side of the ship – where most of the weaponry was – look towards the surface. However, they were floating directly above a huge sea, therefore, they had to navigate towards the continental areas before they could deal any damage with a bombardment.

Cerberus' and Nero's combined ground forces were making advancements, breaking several lines of the rebel defense forces, but they still had many enemies to defeat before they could call it a victory, and none of their commanders had fallen so far.


Nero received a message; Commander Cerberus requested to allow him to join him aboard the Valhalla.

Nero thought it was rather suspicious, but on the other had, an easier opportunity to get rid of him, once and for all. He could not resist the temptation to finish him off as quickly as possible; he allowed him to board the ship, but only allowed a single transport to reach close to the Valhalla.


The transporter slowly approached the hangar door, and in the meanwhile, Nero decided to check the combat longs of the ongoing battle, down on the surface. What he found it rather satisfying what he had read out of them; the rebels were forced to retreat on two fronts, and his forces seized several power production lines before Cerberus' forces could reach them. “Everything is going as planned,” he said to no one in particular.

(Continued in next post due to character limit)